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THE ART 



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Introduced in New York in 1871, 



ILLUSTRATIONS FROM LIFE, 



BY 



I. HERMANN, 



860 Broadway, Cor. 17TH St., Union Square. 



NEW YORK. / 

1885. 






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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by 

I. HERMANN, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



\ 






DIAMONDS. 



fN interesting article, written by Rosenthal-Bonin in 
" Ueber Land und Meer," narrates an interview at a Paris 
cafe, in the year 1865, with a poor, aged, careworn old ?nan, 
who regularly visited the place at dinner time, drinking 3£5§ 
coffee and eating with hunger dry bread which he slyly 
took from his pocket. This man wore on his small bony 
finger a large diamond of rare brilliancy and of great value; 
the contrast created suspicion, and when kindly advising 
him that by realizing for that gem he could make his life 
easy, he exclaimed : " What ? part with this gem ? it is im- 
possible ! it is my only joy, my only love that I possess ; in 
my greatest despair it is my support ; I forget my misery 
when I look at it ; it is to me a beacon of light, a heaven of 
bliss in all this world's misery; a visible and lasting symbol 
of purity, unchangeable and eternal." There was no other 
history connected with this diamond, but when a young 
man he bought it cheap, and possessing all the great quali- 
ties a pure and brilliant gem could possess, he as a good 
judge would not part with it at any price; it was his all in 
his adversity. This would seem insanity and hardly possi- 
ble that such an affection for a jewel could exist, but it 
does; it is not only from the wearer, who adorns himself or 
herself for its beauty and brilliancy to draw attention, or 
the lover of art and science who finds in it a fountain of 
hidden knowledge, but it is a charm and life companion to 
the artist who finds " REWARD " for its beauty aod all his 
exertions and anxiety to bring it to perfection and greatest 
brilliancy lor the enjoyment of others; he, amid all his severe 
trials in life, found relief when at work in his atelier ; it 
seemed to him when finishing the first brilliant facet as if 
«' THE CLOUDS ARE BREAKING " and the sun rising on the 
far horizon in all its splendor, playing its rays on the pure 



THE FOLLOWING ARE THE MOST KNOWN AND 
CELEBRATED DIAMONDS! 

The Grand Mogul, .... Weighing 279 karats. 

" Orlow or Amsterdamer, . . . " 194% " 

*~~ Florentine or Toscaner, . . " 139% " 

" Pit or Regent, " 136% " 

" Star of the South, ... '* 125 " 

" Koh i-noor, cut by Hortensio Borgio, " 186 " 

" " recut by Vo or Sanger, " 106 J^ " 

" Schah, " 86 " 

" Piggot, " 82, l 4 ' " 

" Nassak, ...... " 78% " 

" Sancy, " 53% " 

" Empress Eugenie's, ... " 51 " 

" Blue Diamond, Hope, . . . " 44 % " 

" Polar Star 40 " 

" Pasha of Egypt, .... " 40 " 

" Star of the West, cut by I. Hermann, " 39% " 

I. HERMANN, 

860 BROADWAY, 

UNION SQUARE, COR. 17TH STREET. 



THE DIAMOND CLEAVER. 




"TAKE CARE, PAPA, DEAR." 




■<V,7 



Asy" 



this industry, the first of its kind in this City and State of 
New York. I formed, in 1871, with friends, a company which 
was incorporated as the New York Diamond Co., Importers, 
Cutters and Polishers, under my direction and management, 
advancing the art by inventing new machinery and tho 
difficult task of having the import duty of ten per cent, on 
rough diamonds repealed, for the government seemed un- 
able to perceive the advantage of thus increasing the wealth 
within the country; this expensive privilege obtained by me 
is now enjoyed by all others engaged in the trade ; three 
years we worked with success; in 1873 we imported the larg- 
est diamond ever having entered this port up to that time, 
which weighed eighty karats in the rough, a crystal of , 
octahedron form and by water, which was cut by me on a 
machine of my own invention, it produced a perfect gem, 
by water, of great brilliancy, weighing thirty-nine and three- 
eighths karats, it was exhibited to diamond merchants and 
scientific men and named the " Star of the West " at a ban- 
quet given to me by the New York Diamond Co., March 2d, 
1874, at Delmonico's, corner 14th Street and 5th Avenue. I 
received many testimonials, amongst them an enthusiastic 
mention of my ability in the popular treatise on gems, by 
Dr. Feuchtwanger, an interesting description and illustra- 
tions of our works in the Scientific American, October 3d, 
1873, and other periodicals. Since, larger diamonds have 
been cut and polished by me and other firms, consequently 
the claim laid to the Cleveland (?) diamond to be the largest 
ever imported and polished in this country is not a true 
one. The irregularities in the market for rough diamonds, 
the dullness in the trade, involved great losses, the burden 
of the New York Diamond Co. fell on my shoulders, and 
I became the successor of the company, it can hardly be 
believed what difficulties I had to battle with ; hands that I 
educated, either established themselves or were taken away 
by richer firms; these induced me to depend entirely on my- 
sel f . Encouraged by the acknowledgment of leading houses 
here and in Europe of the superiority of my work, I con- 
fined myself these last years to the recutting and polishing 
of fine diamonds only ; there are great many old mine dia- 



THE DIAMOND I'OLISHETt. 




"THE CLOUDS ARE BREAKING." 



for Karl the Daring, Duke of Burgundy, three large diamonds, 
the first one a thick stone "was faceted and in years after 
named "Sancy," which was lost at the battle of Granson; 
the second one came into the hands of Pope Sixtus IV, and 
the third was in a form of a triangle and set in a ring as a 
symbol of truth, the faithless Ludwig XI, got it as a present 
from the unhappy Duke. The pupils of Ludwig von Ber- 
guen scattered and were found later in Anvers (Antwerp), 
Amsterdam and Paris, struggling along for want of rough 
material. la 1666, through the great influence of Oardi- \ 



Mazarin, the art again flourished, he had the twelve thicker, 
diamonds of the Crown of France repolished by French 
artists, which were called the twelve Mazarins, nobody 
knows what has become of them, in an inventory of the 
crown jewels taken in 1774 only one is mentioned "the 
tenth Mazarin," the same is a pure brilliant weighing six- 
teen karats. It seems that this industry lost gradually 
ground in Paris, and Amsterdam became the great centre of 
the same and remains so to this day, ouly comparatively 
very few factories existing in other parts of Europe; London 
is the great market for rough diamonds, receiving the supply 
from all diamond producing countries. The finest diamonds 
were found in India, but they were very poorly polished, 
because they had the mistaken idea that they could realize 
greater pi-ices on account of size and weight, they were cut 
irregular and without symmetry, called thick stones; the 
Eohinoor was so badly polished by the Venetian cutter Hor- 
tensio Borgio, that the Shah Jehan not only refused him his 
wages but fined him 1000 rupies, after recut by Mr. Voor- 
sanger of Amsterdam, is one of the finest jewels of the 
Crown of England; great many of these old East India dia- 
monds which come into the possession of lovers of art are 
repolished, increasing their value. 

In 1870, soon after the discovery of diamonds in the South 
African fields, I received through a friend a few specimens, 
supposed to be diamonds found in the Cape, for my inspec- ' 
tion, which I pronounced diamonds and had them cut wit 'a 
a firm in Boston, who had at that time two mills running, 
it x'esulted as expected, and it encouraged me to introduce 



THE DIAMOND CUTTER. 




"PERSEVERE. 






monds owned in this country which by recutting and polish- 
ing can be turned into gems of the greatest brilliancy and 
their value enhanced. This industry is only in its infancy 
in this country and there is no reason why it cannot become 
flourishing, the wealth of this country is increasing from 
year to year and with it the taste for art, why cannot in time 
the market of rough diamonds be turned to this country V 
Our principal jewelers have offices in London and Paris to 
watch the market for fine material, they bring it now here 
to have it polished; only fine diamonds are selected for the 
American trade, time will come when every leading jeiv^ler 
will have an atelier for cutting and polishing diamond* at- 
tached to his establishment, he often requires the advice of 
the cutter in setting, who knows best the nature of the dia- 
mond to effect brilliancy in the setting, often by careless 
handling the diamond is chipped in setting of which the 
owner knows nothing. I have succeeded in making arrange- 
ments with 

Messrs, TAYLOR & BROTHER., 

860 BROADWAY, COR. 17th ST., 

UNION SQUARE. 

who have all the facilities for importing the rough and cut 
stones, and I should be most happy to give my old friends 
the benefit of my long experience and skill in this beautiful 
art and serve them as faithfully as in former years. 



waters ot the calm sea, reflecting all the raiiibow colors wbich 
no other precious stone possesses with such changeable bril- 
liancy; when engaged in the hard work of cutting the dia- 
mond he imagines to encounter the loving eyes of a dear 
one in heaven urging him on to "PERSEVERE"; and when 
at the dangerous and skillful operation of cleaving the dia- 
mond, he hears the sweet voice of his darling boy with the 
warning, l 4 TAKE CARE, PAPA, DEAR ! " A false stroke may 
involve the loss of thousands, like a false step in life may ruin 
a man's happiness, and lose him all the fame gained in the 
great victories of battles won ! This is no fancy, it y\ all 
truth; it exists in life, it is sublime, it is divine; I recog- 
nize in the diamond the greatness of our Creator; one dia- 
mond is different from the other not alone in shape, hard- 
ness or color, but of different character; it requires good 
judgment in the treatment of the same, like a good parent 
will have to exercise over his children. I have taken off 
chips from a yellow diamond, perfectly white, and have 
cleaved a perfect diamond of forty karats in two even parts, 
in order to produce a perfect match from one material; 
they were cut and polished alike to perfection, yet there 
was a difference, though not perceptible to the eye ; the 
diamond will also wear by friction with his own, yet it 
would take thousands of years to wear it off, but it proves 
that all is perishable in time; only the Creator is perfect 
and liveth forever. 

The art of cutting and polishing the diamond was invented 
in the year 1456, by Ludwig von Berguen, of Brugge, Flan- 
ders, it is said that it has existed already in 1373, in Nuern- 
berg, and that Karl the Great wore polished diamonds in his 
robe, in the inventory of reliques belonging to Ludwig, Duke 
of Anjou, taken in 1360, several polished diamonds are men- 
tioned. In 1403, my namesake HERMANN, was renowned 
for his skill in that art, having polished eleven diamonds, 
which were presented to the guests of the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, at a banquet given by him at the Louvre in honor 
of the King of France. The polishing by Ludwig von Berguen- 
in regular facets created a revolution in the trade, and he was 
accredited the actual inventor of that art, in 1475 he polished 



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